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Friday, July 26, 2013

The Secret Billionaire - Chuck Feeney plans to give ALL of his billions away before he dies - "I want the last check I write to bounce"

An Irish-American billionaire who kept his philanthropy
secret for 15 years has given away $7.5billion (£4.9billion) - and plans for it
all to go to charity before his dies.

Chuck Feeney, 82, wears a $15 Casio watch, travels in coach,
does not own a car is a self-confessed 'shabby dresser' and sensibly made his
children work their way through college.

He has given away 99 per cent of his fortune to health,
science, education and civil rights causes around the world through his
Atlantic Philanthropies foundation.

Feeney, who still has a sizeable $2million left in the bank,
made his money from duty free shopping and quietly began giving his money away
in the 1980s.

His generosity went unknown until 1997 and he even made
charities keep the source of their donations secret because he did not want the
attention.

Feeney's 'giving while living' philosophy inspired Bill and
Melinda Gates to set up their charitable foundation as well as Warren Buffet's
Giving Pledge, where some of the richest people in the world have promised to
give away half of their fortune during their lifetime.

The fund has handed out $6.2billion in three decades and
will close in 2020 once its last good causes have been chosen.

'People who have money have an obligation,' Feeney told
Forbes last year. 'I wouldn’t say I’m entitled to tell them what to do with it
but to use it wisely.'

Feeney, who was raised by Catholic parents in an Irish-American
New Jersey neighbourhood during the Depression, preferred to use his influence
and connections during his lifetime rather than letting his money be frittered
away after his death.

'I became convinced that there was greater satisfaction from
giving my money away and seeing something come out of the ground, like a
hospital or a university,' he told the Financial Times last year.

'It just seemed logical to put the money to good use rather
than putting it into a bank account and letting it accumulate and accumulate.'

He told Forbes: 'I concluded that if you hung on to a piece
of the action for yourself you’d always be worrying about that piece. People
used to ask me how I got my jollies, and I guess I’m happy when what I’m doing
is helping people and unhappy when what I’m doing isn’t helping people.'

Feeney served as a radio operator in the United States Air
Force and won a G.I. scholarship to Cornell University.

He has remembered his roots by giving $1billion to education
in Ireland, which mainly went to universities, and $950million to his Ivy
League alma mater.

Ireland's universities, including those in Northern Ireland,
awarded him an unprecedented joint honorary degree last year to thank him for
his help.

The University of Limerick alone received $170million.

His efforts in Ireland extended to quietly funding the peace
process, something he also did in apartheid-era South Africa.

Feeney disagreed with America's war in Vietnam, so has given
$350million to the country for healthcare and higher education.

Operation Smile, a project to treat children born with cleft
palates, has had $19.5million from Atlantic, while cancer projects have had
$370million.

AIDS research in South Africa has had $117million in
investments from the foundation.

He has given $28million to support the abolition of the
death penalty in the United States and has campaigned for eight million
children in the country without health insurance to be covered.

Feeney's children worked as maids, waiters and cashiers
throughout college but shared $140million of the money from his company Duty
Free Shoppers, so have certainly not been cut adrift.

His 38.75 per cent of the company was signed over to his
foundation in 1984, a time when rich lists were hailing him as one of America's
richest men, not knowing the money was no longer his.

However, Feeney avoided as much tax as possible during his
career, setting up companies in tax havens under the name of his French first
wife, Danielle.

When challenged by the FT to say if it was hypocritical for
a tax dodger to become a philanthropist, he retorted: 'I bet it is the
government saying that'.

His intention is for all of his money to be gone by the
times he goes.

He told the New York Times: 'I want the last check I write
to bounce'.